Just at dusk it dawned on me. I do not know the exact definition of a milled soap. I know it means a HARD soap such as Klars, and others boasting of being triple milled. Dittmars packaging talks of it in the tone of Werner Von Braun's angry letter to my father for finding a calculation error (Werner's) and a biting retort back in german . So, is milling mere compression of the soap or actually milling into smaller bits and then compressed? I know soaps can age and actually improve as moisture is lost and the soap hardens. I'll just 'mill about' waiting for an answer.

And, artisan soaps can't be milled is because the full amount of glycerin would make the soap squash, stick, and gum up the machinery. Milled soap starts with a drier product, soap noodles, that are ground up and mixed with the other ingredients to suit the needs of the manufacturer. Artisan soap makers who claim to mill their soap confuse milling with rebatching (when you melt down your finished soap to add fragrance to it).

(09-23-2016, 07:50 AM)Mystic Water Wrote: And, artisan soaps can't be milled is because the full amount of glycerin would make the soap squash, stick, and gum up the machinery. Milled soap starts with a drier product, soap noodles, that are ground up and mixed with the other ingredients to suit the needs of the manufacturer. Artisan soap makers who claim to mill their soap confuse milling with rebatching (when you melt down your finished soap to add fragrance to it).

From what I know, soaps that are triple milled are usually milled more than 3 times, actually 5 times. I remember reading that there is a balance to over doing it where if it is done too many times, the soap will separate and crumble.

To the the op's question, I thought that milling was more specific to the soap going through 2 stainless steel rollers and flattened into the thin pancake. I am not sure if the machine that compresses the soap through as noodles and then chops them at the end to little shavings has a name.

(09-23-2016, 07:50 AM)Mystic Water Wrote: And, artisan soaps can't be milled is because the full amount of glycerin would make the soap squash, stick, and gum up the machinery. Milled soap starts with a drier product, soap noodles, that are ground up and mixed with the other ingredients to suit the needs of the manufacturer. Artisan soap makers who claim to mill their soap confuse milling with rebatching (when you melt down your finished soap to add fragrance to it).

Here's an excerpt from a 1950's patent application for a mechanical improvement in producing milled soaps (this is the preliminary explanation of what milled soap is):

"Milled soaps are characterized by a moisture content less than about 15%, a firm dense texture and high resistance to warping and distortion. Milled soaps also have a somewhat translucent appearance and a rate of solubility higher than a framed soap of about the same solids composition. The conventional process of making milled soap comprises chilling settled kettle soap on a roll, removing the solidified soap from the chilling roll as ribbons, drying the ribbons to an average moisture content within the range of about to mixing the dried ribbons with perfume, preservative, whitening agents, etc., milling the mixture over a plurality of rolls in order thoroughly to homogenize the materials, plodding the milled chips, cutting the bar extruded from the plodder into individual cakes, pressing and wrapping the cakes."

Note that "settled kettle soap" refers to soap curds that have been "salted out" to remove the glycerin, so it can be ground, rolled, pressed, etc. Different manuafacturers might use a slightly different method of preparing the soap for milling (% of moisture considered optimal, spray drying, etc). My understanding is that in modern times, many companies buy different types of soap noodles ready-made and blend them to their own specifications rather than making their own kettle soap.